INDEPENDENT NEWS

Cablegate: 58th Unga - Zimbabwe Agrees with Most U.S.

Published: Thu 10 Jul 2003 01:44 PM
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS HARARE 001411
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AORC PREL PHUM ZI
SUBJECT: 58TH UNGA - ZIMBABWE AGREES WITH MOST U.S.
INITIATIVES
REF: SECSTATE 175664
1. SUMMARY: On July 10, DCM delivered Reftel demarche to
Tadeous Chifamba, Director of Multilateral Affairs in
Zimbabwe,s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who raised no
objections to any of the U.S. initiatives. Chifamba
enthusiastically agreed with the U.S. position on Women &
Political Participation and Cloning but had more tempered,
yet positive, responses on the other initiatives. END SUMMARY.
2. On July 10, DCM delivered Reftel demarche to Tadeous
Chifamba, Director of Multilateral Affairs in Zimbabwe,s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who had no objections to any of
the U.S. initiatives. PolOff and Chifamba,s assistant Winnie
Moyo were note takers.
3. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responses to each
initiative follow:
A. Women & Political Participation: Chifamba indicated that
Zimbabwe would support any initiative that empowers women to
become meaningful participants in the political process. He
cited Zimbabwe as one of the leaders in sub-Saharan Africa on
this score.
B. HIV/AIDS Resolution: Chifamba indicated that Zimbabwe did
not object to this initiative but then groused about
Zimbabwe,s exclusion from President Bush,s $15 billion AIDS
initiative. He expressed concern that access to HIV/AIDS
funds not be politicized, arguing that HIV/AIDS does not
respect borders and could easily spread from a funded country
to a non-funded country. He said to exclude a country from
receiving funds is not humanitarian.
C. Second Committee Reform: Chifamba said Zimbabwe had no
problems with reform but argued that the pledged Monterrey
funds were inadequate to meet the Summit,s objectives. He
also said that although ODA and FDI are welcome, increased
market access would do more to aid development. DCM
mentioned that AGOA had been successful for participating
countries but that it was up to Zimbabwe to meet the
eligibility requirements associated with AGOA.
D. Cyber-Crime/Cyber-Security: Chifamba indicated that
Zimbabwe was neutral on this issue but he expressed concern
over the digital divide and ways to increase connectivity
within Zimbabwe.
E. Cloning: Chifamba said Zimbabwe was in &100 percent
agreement8 with the U.S. on banning human embryonic cloning
but would like to go beyond that to ban cloning of all life
forms. He did not comment to co-sponsorship of a resolution.
F. UN Budget Discipline: Chifamba agreed that the UN needs to
exercise some budgetary discipline particularly in the realm
of the UN specialized agencies (eg. WFP, UNDP, FAO), which
often engage in money-wasting identical projects, but would
not agree with the U.S. beyond this area. He said the reform
of UNSC membership and rules was a top priority for Zimbabwe,
as far as U.N. reform is concerned.
SULLIVAN
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